ISLAMABAD: Punjab police investigating the whereabouts of Khawar Mehmood have pointed finger at the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the enforced disappearance.
A report submitted to the Supreme Court by District Police Officer of Bahawalnagar, Athar Ismail, said Khawar’s uncle Abdul Hayee, who was detained by the ISI for five days, had also accused it of picking up his nephew.
The Additional Advocate General of Punjab, Mustafa Ramday, who read out the report before a three-judge bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, said a thorough investigation and evidence collected suggested that Khawar was perhaps in the custody of intelligence agencies.
The bench had taken up an application of Khalid Mehmood, father of 21-yeay-old Khawar who was taken away by intelligence agencies on June 26 last year from a distribution company in Fortabbas area of Bahawalnagar district.
Saadia Parveen, who married Khawar only six months ago, has approached Amna Masood Janjua of the Defence of Human Rights for help.
During the hearing, Additional Attorney General Tariq Khokhar requested the defence ministry and intelligence agencies to investigate the matter afresh in the light of the report submitted by the Punjab police.
The report said officials of the ISI and the Military Intelligence (MI) had denied that Khawar was in their custody.
Mustafa Ramday informed the court that the inspector general of police had also been requested to approach the ministries of defence and interior for taking up the matter with the MI and ISI high-ups.
Khawar’s father admitted that his elder son, Amir Mehmood, was an activist of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was arrested by intelligence agencies, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Later the Peshawar High Court acquitted him and since then he, along with his wife, has been missing.
A year after Amir’s release, the intelligence agencies started chasing Khawar to trace his elder brother Amir.
Abdul Hayee told investigators that he had visited his nephew Amir in the Charsadda jail where he was undergoing the sentence. Afterwards, he said, he had been apprehended by the ISI and taken to its office inside the Government High School, Fortabbas. He was later taken to Okara where he had been tortured, he alleged.
Mr Hayee told investigators that Khawar had been taken away by the ISI personnel because they were pursuing Amir.
The report said that after a skeleton of an unknown person was found on Sept 3 last year in a bunker near the Fortabbas police station, a DNA test of family members of Khawar was carried out to ascertain the identity of the body. Blood sample of his father was also sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency, Lahore, but its report is still awaited.
The Balochistan home department has also been requested to keep the local police updated on DNA test results of 13 unidentified dead bodies recovered from some graves in Khuzdar. Some of the bodies identified were in the list of missing persons.
Mustafa Ramday informed the court that the commission of inquiry on enforced disappearances, which was also seized with the matter, had directed the ISI and MI to share with it information, if any, about Khawar.
The case will be taken up after two weeks.
